The elimination rounds proceeded at blistering speed, largely due to the fact that there were 16 copies of Wild Nacatl in the Top 8. In under an hour and a half, Marcos Paulo De Jesus Freitas and Vagner William Casatti had secured their seats the finals, where they will compete in the final match of Grand Prix Porto Alegre.

This matchup isn't unfamiliar to De Jesus Freitas at all. In fact, he only just experienced it ten minutes ago, when he dispatched Alejandro Cesa, who was also piloting Naya Burn just like Casatti was.

To boil it down, the onus was on De Jesus Freitas to fend off Casatti's early threats. He had the stronger late game anyway, and will have no problems dominating the board as long as he preserved his life totals. Exchanging blows was the worst idea for De Jesus Freitas, a notion that Casatti would have loved.

Game Two

Stuck on 1 land, De Jesus Freitas was forced to use Path to Exiles on the Goblin Guide, as well as a freshly-summoned Wild Nacatl. After baiting out the removal, Casatti finally felt safe to drop Grim Lavamancer, which he had been sandbagging for a few turns.

Game Three

The tournament was in its final throes and both players were visibly nervous. After all, this was a pretty cutthroat matchup where every turn, every mana and every single point of damage mattered.

De Jesus Freitas prayed for a good hand, but was cursed with a mulligan. It was the final game of the day, and after claiming Game 1, he really didn't want to go down just like that.

Laying Stomping Ground untapped and passing the turn was unorthodox, but it was something De Jesus Freitas opted to do, fearing hasty creatures in Casatti's deck. Unfortunately for him, Casatti's creatureless draw was laden with burn spells.

When Voice of Resurgence hit play, Casatti thought hard about whether to cast Searing Blaze. If he did, that would knock De Jesus Freitas down to 9. Accompanied with the Lightning Bolt and two suspended Rift Bolts, that was lethal and even granting De Jesus Freitas two Elemental tokens didn't matter!